CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4083, 7 April 1892, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

Sporting,

Sanfllcapplnftana Qrltlolsm. [to the editor.] Sir,—l consider it as very hard for certain owners of horses, that the present handicapper does not study the scarcity of light weight jockeys at present in the district—or for that matter out olit—and frame hie h»ndi>. oip« in order togiveeveryone achanco to procure a jockey qnpable of riding at the handicap weight. In order to point an instanco oi how fow jockeys are to be procured to ride anywhere near 7sb,, it is only necessary to look back to the late Masterton-Opaki J.O. Meeting. In the St. Patrick's Handicap the only borso beto'v 7at was Blenheim 6st 71b, and although, she was backed heavily by thestablein preference to her stable companion, by the parties concerned'in her, had to put up 7st 31bs—lOlbs overweigbt-when I feel sure the owners would have been only too glad to pay travelling fees of a lighter lad, had one been procurable. Take the next race-Plying Hack Race. Here there were eleven starters of which we find six horses carried overweight ranging from, ij|h,s to 281bs, M]d thia it must be born In mind when the lowest weight was 6st 101b. It is unnecessary for me to allude to the other races where the same thing took place. In' Mr MoParlane's handicaps for the Wairarapa meeting, he raises the top weight in the flying Handicap yjlb.a and the winner filbs and puts the lowest weight Cat 71bs, so that if any of those which started at Opaki with under 7st 71bs elect to put tbesamehorsemenup—beingunablo to secure other—they will only meet the winner and second horse on tbe amount those horses have been raised: better terms, I should: like the handicapper to give me any reason why he should -not start with 9st lllba in a hack flying, as he has seen lit to jo in the Flying Handioap; and' the Bamo (juestiqn would apply ia the mile and a distaDoe hack raoe and Easter handicap. Mr MoFarlane seems lately to be more inclined to make what are knowa as" fluttering handicaps," than those which would give the owners of the light weights some show of procuring riders for their horses, and ' consequently attract larger fields, How, different to the days when Forester had lOst 71bs, llatand list 71bs placed on his back and won the Opaki handicap mth the former weight, and when it came to meeting hacks he was disgracefully biirdened, "with JJjst and 14st. Another question i Is'it just to owners who Have entered for the Featherston meeting, and their form meanwhile exposed at Opaki, to have to ajl intents and purposes no chance of winning—ifthey are foolish enough to stan.—i-egnuse tbe handicapper seeu flt to make what is termed % flattering handicap ? In writing the above I do not wish it to hi: understood that I find fault with Mr McFarlane as a handicapper, as I consider the generality of his productions foster good racing, and are very creditable, unci he would be hard —if not impossible—to replace in this ' district, but I hope he will recognise the impossibility of procuring light weights, aud in future study owners more, which will, I em sure, prove not only more advantageous to the racing clubs, but produce better finishes;. • . _ After having w.ritten the foregoing I had resolved not to send it fop publication, butnotiping an effusion which has been in the Lower.! Valley, drawing atteptjon to the 1 scarcity of light'weights, and giving a little advice to owners of horses that are not capable of having anv show at a difference of 8J Btone of the top weight, I decided to ask the use of your space. Now what this writer says is all very well, but I would point but thejb if tbe top weight is 9st fibs and n,o rid'ejs .under fa average of 7st 71bs are prpcurable, serb jg really only a difference of gst between top' and bottonfweights, Tboanßwer'No,' to the question, " Can a handicapper start a handicap at over 9st7lbs?!' simply betrays ignorance and stupidity,; yet snoh 'aWateraenf-'has baeni njade. j Allow me to point 1 out the fact that Mr Heiiry,' admittedly thebesthandi-j capper o| hack horses in ss., had the audacity (?) to start',' Swindler" in the first handicap hack raoe, 'one mile, at Hawera, .with. lOst 21bs, At Turakina." Btrephon"" hadM lllbs

allotted to him in the Flying j while in the Waverley Cup, If miiesj Swindler was given 9st 121bs, And to come to racehorse?, take, as an instance,, Mr Danvers' treatment of Whakawatea when he save thathoree, adio is only a two-yeai-oldj lOst 41bs in the Sapling Stakes at the last Napier Park meeting, I can only think referring to a class of writers who assume an importance and prominence in sporting matters which whs never theirs, and never will be, that they sometimes allow an impetuous, irresponsible, and illgoverned pen to play havoc with their intelligenje—if indeed such creatures ever possess any. Then.again,the criticisms on the several handicaps amused me greatly. Potaka is declared to. be very badly treated, andyet is selected by the sympatliotical one as his idea of the eventual winner. 'Again, the same individual—whoever he is when he uses his ordinary name-states Potaka is badly treated in the mile and a distance hack handicap, and quotes his having to meet Brookfield on a stone worse terms than at Masterton. My opinion of the race at the latter place was, that a stone at that scale of weights would not. have brought them together. However this is only a difference of opinion. J cannot see what the weight placed on Czarina has to do with that of Potaka, I may be a had judge, but I should say Brookfield should easily have defeated Czarina in the Flying,'l am-perfectly certain it was a False run race as Brookfiold's time-.Thick I took myself was lroin 24f 3eos, allowing it only took him limn 24secs and that he ' ran the mile and a quarter a sec. slower than the winner, namely 2min 20sec, it will be found that he ran -at the rate of 28sec each quarter in the . longer distance as he did in the shorter one. I must say I was astonished to see him so close up in the H, and made it my business to enquire into his running in the Flying.and learned that the jookey was greatly iatsrfered , with and once was nearly off his horse, i The blame, if any discrepancies in 1 the handicapping exist, is in the fact 1 of the powers that be of the W.E.C, t ißsuing their weights bo long before , the meeting, and so not allowing the . handicapper the benefit of learning i the comparative merits of animala running at intervening meetings, i whose form may not have been previ--1 ouslyfullyexposed.Andnotonlyinthe ; matter of the weights appearing so , long beforehand are the Stewards to blame, but also in the faot of closing their nominations six weeks (Ye Gods I) before the date of their meeting, making it not only difficult, but unjust for owners who so materially help to provide sport and fill their coffer,

I cannot close this letter without condemning the gross partisanship displayed by a certain budding sporting scribbler, for Mr MoKenzie's stable, and I must say that I consider his reflections are most-to express it mildly—unbecoming. Out of the five handicaps reviewed (1) he finds fault with four, owing to the manner Mr McKp.nzie's horses have been dealt by, but Btrange to say, he does not find fault with any other horses' weight except those belonging to that stable. lam glad to see that more re* cently he has made Ihe amende honor* able in ihe matter of General Gordon, but I think his views are so narrow, j and his motive so transparent that neither the public nor the handicapper I will take much cognisance of his opinion. If this < person considers himself an authority and if he has any ability and judgment let hira honestly review each horse separately, and if mistakes do crop up, no doubt the handicapper will Notify them at a future time, Apologising tor the space required for my letter, I am, Ac, Justice. Masterton, 6th April. P.S.—Since writing the abovo I notice Mr King in making his handicaps for the Otaki meeting recognises the difficulty owners were subjected to at Opaki, and makes his minimum weights in all .fiat handicaps 7st.